The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes

Chapter 149: Diamonds and Rust

Reaching the cave, they heard a loud clash from inside.

Looking through the head-high entrance, Crucis saw that members of [Stranded] were fighting among themselves. A glowing, ghostly blue radiated from behind them like sapphire, and seemed to draw out the silhouette of a human-shaped statue. Did it have anything to do with why they were fighting?

One [Stranded] member was getting the upper hand, his sword flying from side to side elegantly as he carved up his Guildmates. He was level 60. Crucis and Danemy approached him cautiously, edging along the walls of the tunnel.

He cut down his last comrade, first surprising her with a sudden advance and a spray of cuts and thrusts towards the head and upper body, then crouching down for a [Rising thrust] to the chest below her now-high guard. However, he could sense Crucis approaching from behind.

Swinging around to intercept Crucis' [Lunge], he found that it was a feint, and Crucis instead used a [Slash] to cut off his hands. Danemy's spear thrust unimpeded through the player's throat.

"The fighting there was really aggressive, something must be up," Danemy said.

"Yeah, especially since they're from the same Guild," Crucis said, checking his inventory. "Here's something strange, they dropped a scroll called the [Pact of Hnoss]. But it's used up, I can't do anything with it."

"Weird. There's some statues up ahead, maybe they'll explain." Danemy walked deeper into the cave, and the rest of the group followed.

Emerging from the entrance tunnel, they came upon a small chamber with a single, large statue in the middle, surrounded by smaller ones behind it on each side. The central statue was a navy blue that glowed intensely though the dark chamber, and had blindingly bright white eyes without a pupil. Stepping closer to it, Crucis felt a sudden wave of heat flickering across his skin.

"It says 'Surtr, Bringer of Fire,'" Danemy said, looking at the small inscription beneath the statue.

"The other statues are all figures from Ragnarok," Crucis said. "Fenrir, Garm, Nidhoggr."

These other statues, illuminated in the blue radiance of the central one, displayed slightly grotesque, twisted figures of two canines and a dragon which looked like a frilly monitor lizard. Each small figure seemed to emphasise the creature's gaping, aggressive mouth, which took up about a third of the figure.

In front of the blue statue, there was a glass panel, with a cylindrical indent which seemed to have held something. Perhaps the Pact of Hnoss. There were still a few scraps of paper left on the glass, from where the scroll may have been pulled out.

Walking up to the glass, Crucis saw a glint of bright white, violet and red emanating from beneath it. The colours swirled like a kaleidoscope, and seemed to show a large battle, with dragons and other large creatures swooping ephemerally among the action. The battle occasionally resembled the silhouette of a female face, with a small, tight-lipped mouth and wide, curving eyes.

On touching the glass, he noticed that the dark-grey cave floor began to shimmer with bright white like shards of glass, and a hole opened right behind him. Feeling a sudden sensation of falling, he shuffled his feet to make sure that he was on solid ground.

The group quietly made their way into the small chamber below, lit by two, glimmering white statues.

The more prominent statue displayed a female whose firm skin was a diamond-like white, with occasional streaks of blood-red painted around the edges, occasionally accompanied with fine black streaks beside them. The statue was marked as 'Hnoss.' Her face was set in a frail expression almost like gasp. She sat in a lounging position, leaning leisurely backwards onto a part of the cave wall painted white. The statue was strangely life-like, and almost seemed to lean back in surpise as the group arrived.

The statue next to her was similar, a more slight female with faint violet marks instead of red ones. This was called 'Gersemi.'

A line of silver liquid mercury, about as wide as a fist, snaked slowly around each of these statues.

In a few seconds, a thin mist of sandalwood incense smoke wafted across the statues from behind them. A soft, reverential murmur could occasionally be heard from the direction of the smoke.

The incense smoke changed colours as it filled the air around the statues, as if it was a film screen superimposed over them. It seemed to display some sort of story, though it wasn't immediately clear what was going on.

At first, a series of large, foggy draconic shapes seemed to appear, grasping the two statues by force. These began to fight against each other, circling round as their claws and teeth extended, until they died and disappeared. Their blood seemed to drain into the red paint of the first statue.

This reminded Crucis of the scenes on the glass panel above, as well as of the [Stranded] Guild infighting at the entrance to the cave.

After the creatures disappeared, a large, green-grey skin - seemingly from their corpses - extended loosely around each statue like a cloak. The statues moved, rearing themselves up luxuriously with vacant expressions. The blood of the creatures seemed to seep over the first one like make-up, tinging her lips a deep red and shading her eyelids a pale violet which verged on grey. Her expression turned complacent.

The green-grey skin seemed almost alive as it wrapped itself around her, gently sliding across her arms and clinging to her sides.

As it moved, its rustling took on the sound of a voice, resembling the deep voice of Freyr which Crucis had already heard.

"Sweet Hnoss, love for you overwhelms me like the lush green forests that mass in an ancient city's ruins. With you by my side, every victory seems small before the vast joy you bring me. My love for you is eternal, like the rolling of the seasons."

As this voice faded, Hnoss' lips began to move in reply, startling Danemy. Her voice was frail, kept firm only by a steadfast sense of propriety, and had a hint of the maudlin to it.

"Love, your kind words are a sweet song to my ears. They grow upon my heart like moss coats a small stone in green. Speak it once more, my love, and my ears shall echo it to me, again and again, for the ages of the world. O, would you have eternity with me?"

She ended with a teasing lift, begetting a reply.

"I cannot be so presumptuous as to ask for it, but seek pleasure in more humble desires. Your gaze fills me with joy as bright as the dawn chorus of birds in the spring. Your laughter is the laughter of blooming meadowlarks amid flowers bursting forth from winter's sleep. All of this means more to me than flowers may know when sunlight filters through the leafy canopy, dappling the ground with spots of golden light. I long to weave garlands of flowers to place upon your head, as lovely as your spirit."

"Yes, and your passion awakens my heart as surely as dawn awakens the sunflower. Its fire could eclipse the golden halls of Valhalla. Come, let us walk there. Even the envy of the gods could not part us."

The scene shifted, displaying a sword next to Hnoss. As she placed a hand on it, a group of scenes appeared in the air above it.

They depicted a feminine figure, shadowed by the green-grey skin cloaking them, fighting off various titans and monsters with the sword. In the fiercest battle, they fought a man who seemed to be on fire, and who fought frantically with his own flaming sword. Although the man attacked fiercely, he was always fended off, the two swords circling and colliding like a metronome. It almost seemed choreographed. Eventually, in his rage, he stepped forwards with a series of fierce strikes until he was only inches from her, and their swords clashed tensely between their chests.

The fight was at an impasse: he would not stop pressing forwards, and she would not let his sword through. Unexpectedly, she leaned lightly forwards and kissed him, revealing her face as one similar to Hnoss from the statue. Shivering, as if cold, he let his sword waver and she duly drew her sword across his throat, ending the fight. His body blackened to ashes under the heat of his own fire, and the powdery ashes swept over her body.

These battle scenes faded, and now Hnoss' statue wore two cloaks, having added a black, thin semi-transparent one which curved easily across her skin. It once again seemed to speak as it tugged itself tight around her, but now in a faint, husky whisper with a gruff edge.

"We've known each other for so long, in these days before sorrow. In these days when we have ranged freely the earth and heavens, before they shall perish. Hnoss, come with me. Our destinies are woven together, as the trees of the groves intertwine their branches. Forever and always. Our eyes have the same tears inside. We were made to be one."

She replied cagily. "You speak truly. Thank the gods for bringing us together, and for crafting us from the same spark of light and spirit. But..."

"What makes you hesitant?"

She looked at the black cloth across her skin, as if glimpsing another person hidden beneath its dark cover.

"You know that I am meant to be with Baldr. Though he is not here... I wait for him. Shall Baldr come again after Ragnarok, as the prophecies say, and take me for his own? Then I must be by his side. Shall his second coming light the green fields of the new world? So I wait. Only if he does not appear, we may be together. But, if the prophecies are true, I shall grant him sole claim on my hand."

"You'd better, sister," said the other statue, Gersemi. "You must be with Baldr, so that I may be with Hodr, who is said to rise with him. The nights of the new world will take from us a dark, youthful violet. You shall look more glamorous by day, but I'll have the better nights."

Hnoss chortled. "You'd wife the black god, Hodr? That would bring our family into disrepute."

"Please, sister, you're just envious. Wouldn't you pine after the shaft that pierced and overcame even your husband-to-be?"

"I daresay you should envy me more. I would have the most handsome of gods beside me, and you would have to settle for a piece of charcoal. If we were Aesir, we'd even go to war and ruin the new world."

"Oh, why worry? When me and Hodr kiss under the mistletoe, why, it will be as if Baldr is extinct, so little will I think of him."

The scene changed again, and both of them were wearing a silver-white bridal crown which appeared in the thickening insense smoke. A blond, bulky man, with a youthful, devil-may-care look, seemed to appear next to Hnoss. Probably Baldr. His appearance was currently still slightly unclear and hazy, but seemed to become clearer over the seconds. Strangely, unlike the scenes which came before, as he became clearer he actually seemed like a bulky physical presence in the room, breathing calmly right in front of them. Perhaps the power of the incense was growing in strength.

"He comes... He comes," she whispered, staring at him with wide eyes.

At this point, the scene around them looked fiery, as if in the aftermath of Ragnarok. Seemingly, these scenes weren't simply a recounting of historical events, but had drifted at some point to speculative future scenes. It wasn't so much informative as it was hopeful and ritualistic.

Crucis stepped away, noticing that the noise of murmuring from behind the goddesses had grown much louder. He could even hear what sounded like people arranging and re-arranging themselves.

The surprise of seeing these statues moving and talking had at first captured the group's attention, but by now it seemed clear that the statues weren't likely to suddenly interact or fight at the moment. He guessed that the incense smoke had somehow animated them, and looked around till he found a semi-circular tunnel leading to the chamber behind the goddesses. This is where the incense had come from.

Walking through, and gesturing for Danemy and Starfighter to follow, he could feel the incense becoming thicker in the air around him.

He emerged with surprise into a spacious, fairly orderly chamber carpeted in a luxurious red and violet carpet, with large white finches woven delicately in each corner.

In this room, at least fifty people gathered, unarmed, either holding incense sticks or relaying them to a large pile in the front of the room. Most of them were kneeling, holding incense as they bowed their heads reverentially. Next to the pile were two panels, one with a painting of Hnoss, the other with a painting of Gersemi. The paintings were slightly cursory, but were worshipped fervently, and around each panel were laid offerings of flowers, gems, and finely-shattered glass which encased the rest.

Looking around, Crucis saw that most of the worshippers had nametags saying [Worshipper of Hnoss] or [Worshipper of Gersemi], with a small scattering of players marked [Baldur Cultist] or [Worshipper of Freyr]. These were NPCs. However, strangely, at least twenty of the people present had no name tags, and did not seem to move in tune with the others. He wasn't sure if they were NPCs, players, or something else.

He drew out his sword.

Walking forwards, he slashed from side to side, cutting easily through rows of worshippers. The survivors huddled in corners of the chamber, hearing the anguished cries of their fellows who saw Crucis' blade coming towards them.

Seeing this, Danemy and Starfighter began to join in.

Crucis noticed that the strongest, most varied reactions were from the people without name tags. Many of them begged for their lives or screamed in a way quite different from the uniform NPCs. Some even uttered prayers to their monotheistic Gods, which seemed peculiar when they were in a chamber for worship of Norse ones.

After cutting laboriously through a dense crowd, Crucis remembered that his machete could attack fluidly while in motion, and would make this task easier. He withdrew it, and began walking through crowded areas of the room, slashing the now-white machete through crowds as he strode through them. Thick, black smoke welled up from the dead, and he began to look like a humanoid, ghostly figure formed from the black cloth which had draped over Hnoss' statue.

By now, most of the remaining worshippers cowered in the corners.

He walked up to them, and easily ran his machete through three or four with two strokes, before turning backwards and seamlessly mowing down one who tried to flee.

A few players nearby attempted to barge into him and wrestle him down, but he easily turned and fended them off with slashes to the chest and arms.

Checking his rewards occasionally, he saw that the worshippers with name-tags gave each member of the group 20 Ivaldi Gold and no Divine Mana, while the ones without name-tags gave 100 Ivaldi Gold and 100 Divine Mana like a player would. This gave them a healthy heap of rewards for clearing out the room.

As he approached the last, nameless worshippers in the room, bearing down on them confidently, they began to scream desperately at him.

"Why? What for? How could you do this? Our ritual was holy!"

Since he was almost done with the room, he relaxed slightly and replied, "You won't resurrect Baldr, but you can die like him."

He cut them down with a quick series of strikes above their shoulders, as they crouched back.

Standing still and looking up, with the room around him quiet, he saw a tall, wooden stake rising to mark out the corner of the chamber. Near the top, a few metres off the ground, two short horizontal wooden stakes were attached facing outwards. Each was laid along one of the cave walls leading out from the corner. The overall structure formed a rough 't' shape, and there was one in each of the four corners of the room.

Turning around, he saw that the incense was starting to sputter out.

However, after five seconds, it suddenly sprung to life again, with a faint white flame appearing to spur it on.

There was a loud howl from the chamber with the statues, and Crucis walked over to take a look.

As he entered, he was attacked by a large, white human shape leaping from the ceiling, and his machete immediately flashed out to cut through its neck and shoulders.

However, it twisted its body and caught him with a firm jump kick before somersaulting away. He fell back painfully against the cave wall.

Starfighter and Danemy ran in on hearing the sound of a fight. Crucis saw that his enemy was named [The Aesthete]. Although its head had fallen by his side, it had grown eyes and a mouth on its left foot, and continued fighting.

He noticed that the statues seemed to be swaying to watch The Aesthete, as if watching a dancing performance. In the incense, the outsides of their eyes were circled by a hazy, paint-like pink hue, matching a similar pink outline on The Aesthete's eyes. Their faces had stiffened until they looked like decorous white masks.

The group of three surged forwards and managed to corner The Aesthete, but after striking off its left leg it grew another 'face' on its chest. Its movements were elegant, practically dancing and somersaulting around as it reached for each player with its claw-like fingernails. However, they kept it at bay with their swords. Crucis cut right through this new face, and continued slicing until the creature finally expired. Its final face was on the flank of its torso.

From defeating this creature, each member of the group received 500 Ivaldi Gold, much more than usual.

The incense smoke finally died out, and the statues froze into place, with fear in their eyes.

As the fumes disappeared, the images and colour dissipated, and soon only a raucous, whispering voice came from the dying smoke.

"Two sisters, both alike in indignity, bearing names meaning 'treasure,'" it said. "Alas, they learned well from their mother, Freyja: what treasure they could boast, they soon gave away! So profligate, ahem, charitable they were, they even wished to needlessly lend their wound-shaped treasure to that ruptured old corpse, Baldr. Frailty, thy name is - why, it's Freyja!"

Crucis recognised the voice as resembling Loki's, when he had taken the form of the rogue stall owner before the event.

It continued, "I have heard their boasts, that they will consort with Baldr. That effeminate, blond god would be worthless to them. In truth, he has nothing of substance to penetrate them with, so they would have to do the penetration themselves. But he is too stubborn. Even when the brilliant, young buck Hodr pierced him with loving mistletoe, Baldr cried out pridefully and resented it even more than Rindr begrudged Odin the same. Do these shameful females think that they could out-perform Hodr, with their diminutive thrusts? Don't they know that Odin once gave as a kenning for 'female' the phrase 'rod so short it vanishes'? Alas, they are not only frail in virtue, but also in mind.

"But is it indeed said that Baldr will return? It was hard to know for sure while I was tied up for centuries. The ignominy of Baldr knows no bounds! He has not only died, but he refuses to be happy with his lot. Well, far be it from me to let the tears of the gods find succour. Come the end-times, I will be an agent of chaos, and defy the prophecies that wise Odin lives by. For now, the gods are distracted by the war, and I can seek information. I have no doubt that the war is tomfoolery, in truth the Aesir would not dispense with Freyja as a prized consort to them all, and the two sides will make up because they have muddied their blood enough that they cannot tell otherwise. Sayonara!"

The voice faded as the incense smoke did, and eventually was gone.

While listening to it, Crucis had checked the two exits from this cave. One was to climb back up towards the blue statue, and then leave the way they came. The other also led back to the valley, but through an underground path to the left of the statues of Hnoss and Gersami.

Since he wasn't sure if there were any groups of players outside the cave entrance, which could trap them in it, he led the group through the leftwards tunnel. As they entered, they heard the statues breaking apart and collapsing behind them. This tunnel wound around sideways, and eventually led to a hidden door a few metres up on the cliffside, from which they leapt down to the ground using Divine Mana.

His companions had been fairly tense in the cave, and didn't speak much. However, he could tell that Danemy had a lot to say.

Looking around, Crucis was impressed by how difficult it was to notice the cave, even though they had landed a short way from it. A few carefully angled rocks and the deep shadows of a nearby rock arch made it almost invisible when passing by. Danemy had probably only noticed it because he tended to inspect terrain deeply, due to habitually trying to use it to his advantage. It had seemed obvious when he led them here, but it would have otherwise been quite obscure.

He saw Starfighter approaching an unsuspecting group of low-level players behind some rocks, and ran to join in.